I want to learn more about the Anabaptist movement's origins. I am not religious, but I grew up in a high anabaptist population region and am curious.
I have read a bit about Zwingli, Hubmaier, Mann, etc. I want to learn about the broader social context, as I know there were uprisings, wars, etc.
Any books or historians you suggest?
Or, anyone care to do a breakdown of anything you know of this era of Swiss history?
Cheers
So pretty much like it says in the title. Switzerland was conquered by the Romans and Napoleon without significant difficulty, but would be very hard to conquer today afaik, and would have been difficult by modern armies in WWII. Why was this? Is it due the reliance of modern armies on motorised infantry rather than horses? What are the factors involved?
Edit: Thanks for the answers so far, but thus far answers have felt a little focussed on the impregnability of the country in C20. I was actually more interested in how Napoleon and the Romans successfully invaded a region famed for its natural defences. Apologies if this was down to my poor framing of the Q. I’m actually pretty bored by history involving Nazis at this point!
I went to Switzerland for 5 days in early december. It was the first time I travel on my own but it turned out to be a great experience.
I have spent 2 days in Lucerne and 2 days in Interlaken.
I visited the Pilatus Kulm, Eigergletscher, Kleine Scheidegg and the city of Thun.
Its amazing how much you can visit in a relatively small area.
I hiked 49 km in 2 days but enjoyed every bit of it.
I have encountered deers on the trail, went from -8 degrees blizzard to 2 degrees hail storm and almost got lost in snow reaching my waist.
Overall Switzerland is a great country to visit.
In terms of money the hotels were around 350 swiss francs for 4 nights. On train rides and cable cars I paid around 250 francs. Food and chocolate i bought home: ~130 swiss francs.
I made 2 more detailed videos on youtube but I’m not sure if I can post them here.
Edit: Thank you for all the feedback. Hope I don’t get in trouble but here are the videos: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSzKttEP4V2chbERBfASCBiwrGYmfnsdK
Then Russia declared war on me, brought my economic output to 15.3 million, my population to 7 million. Luckily they didn't take any land. I didn't have a singal soldier, trying to respect swiss neutrality and to not put a burden on the nation.
Moral of the story, always keep a military
What clothing would be accurate for a young woman to wear in Geneva, Switzerland near the beginning of the 18th century, at the end of the enlightenment and romanticism period?
As for her class, she is a young woman whose family owns a large home with servants and many expensive books, and her father can send two children off to get good education, so the family would be relatively wealthy, if that helps. She is estimated to be the age of around 16-18.
Thank you so much if you can help :D
Or did the king actually gave titles to cannon fodder(sword fodder?) plebian enlisted men?
Though I wouldn't mind some flexibility in time and location if someone has other semi-relevant expertise.
Trying to buy a few stocking stuffers for my brother in law. He's grown up on punk and likes modern punk music so I thought the book might be interesting to him. Would you say this is a safe buy? Are there any other books you'd reccomend?
Scholars, I thought I would ask a fun, albeit speculative question: How do you think early Christians would react if they were transported to the 21st century?
What modern religious beliefs, advancements in science etc. would surprise them the most?
Let’s look at his regime first. While definitely some of the economic reforms he proposed were just, he went way beyond other Renaissance polities in his level of social control (enlisting the youth in destroying secular art and musical instruments), making grandiose predictions, and forming a martyrdom cult. Considering the influence he had on Martin Luther, one can argue that Protestantism itself is based on the Renaissance equivalent of the Taliban or Christian fundamentalists.
I'll be running a table through a few-shot (maybe 4 to 6 sessions) using Shadow of the Demon Lord. I'm happy winging things and adapting as needed... I'm looking for thematic recommendations more than SotDL specific material.
Might limit the primary society (and PC's) to humans only. There should be monsters though. I like the idea of early firearms to be included, alongside more traditional melee weapons. I don't mind a little industrialization, or even mildly steampunky atmosphere, but not over the top gonzo / pulpy.
Could be urban, or could be more village/rural oriented. Dark societal elements are good. Maybe an inquisition or witchhunters? Maybe corrupt trade and exploitation of the common folk? Maybe a mystery, maybe not. I don't want the PC's to clearly be playing the hero... Morally gray. Trying to survive in a world that won't pull its punches. Probably some form of unjust government, either localized or large scale.
Know of any good modules that might ring a couple of these bells?
Many thanks!
We am planning a trip to Switzerland from Nov 26 - Dec 4 for our first anniversary. However I've heard that this is a off season and most activities are closed.
Please advice if traveling there at that time is a good idea.
Interested in scenic views / night-life / skiing / shopping.
I'm building a world that at this point of its history has technology level of roughly 1600s-1700s. Flintlock firearms as the most typical weapons in use.
So, in a fairly large country that is an absolute monarcy, a large amount of students of a military academy are protesting against taxation and government seizing land for itself.
How would the government deal with them effectively? I feel just killing a bunch of soldiers-in-training is bound to make your existing army uneasy and cause more unrest.
What I was thinking is rhag maybe they'd simply blockade the school and wait for them to grow tired and hungry and turn themselves in. But you'd need half a division for that, and it'd be a constant reminder of the issue and bring them attention at least.
Lastly giving in to their demands would probably just inspire more protests(?), I think.
We all know about colonial China when the British Empire was kicking around the area, we know that China had some contact with Japan during the samurai hayday in the late and post sengoku jidai period, we know about the famed rise of communism over there too. However, China is a wonderful country beyond the oppressive regimes its sadly slagged with nowadays (not that there werent other moments of tyranny in the past mind you, just nothing like THIS...), it has a beautiful culture, and a fascinating history to boot.
Therefore, I ask that, besides the Three Kingdoms period of China that gets beat to heck and back in terms of how often it gets representation in popular media, what other periods from Chinese history can you suggest I look into? What other dynasties, points in time, would prove interesting for my own historic curiosity? Are there any periods which detail a history just as storied and fascinating as the Three Kingdoms period? Surely there must be, right?
